Human Rights Policy
Basic philosophy
Since our establishment in 1968, we, Sysmex Group have striven to contribute to resolving global medical challenges through our core business in laboratory testing of blood, urine, and other specimens, and today we support the health of people in more than 190 countries and regions around the world.
We keep striving to instill "anshin" in all our stakeholders through our business activities based on the Sysmex Way and Shared Values, which describe our corporate philosophy for the Sysmex Group. We believe that efforts to respect human rights are the basis for achieving "anshin", and Sysmex Group's Global Compliance Code also emphasizes respect for human rights. We have established this policy in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to continue to promote these efforts.
Respect for international standards
We support and respect international standards related to human rights, such as the International Bill of Human Rights (Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenants on Human Rights) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. In addition, we also joined the United Nations Global Compact in 2011 to affirm our corporate stance on the 10 principles related to human rights, labor, environment, and anticorruption.
Scope of application
This policy applies to all officers and employees, including temporary workers, working for the Sysmex Group.
We expect all business partners to understand and to continuously support this policy and to cooperate with us to ensure human rights are at all times respected.
Human rights due diligence
We understand that our business activities and transactions with business partners may directly or indirectly affect human rights, and we will establish and continuously implement a human rights due diligence system to prevent or mitigate any adverse human rights impacts.
Dialogue and discussion with stakeholders
We will continuously improve our efforts to respect human rights by using expertise on human rights from outside sources, considering the position of affected people, recognizing the importance of understanding from the perspective of affected people, and sincerely engaging in dialogue and discussion with stakeholders.
Addressing the adverse human rights impacts
When we recognize adverse human rights impacts in our own business activities, we will take immediate action to correct or remedy them in accordance with the framework of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The same applies when we recognize adverse human rights impacts in our business transactions with our business partners. We expect all our business partners to support us in these activities unreservedly.
Important issues
We act with due regard to respect the human rights of all stakeholders. In particular, we will pay attention to the following human rights issues. These issues may be reviewed in the future depending on the results of our human rights due diligence.
- Human rights in the workplace
We promote respect and mutual recognition of the diverse cultures and perspectives of employees working for the Sysmex Group. We will refrain from discrimination or any conduct that could lead to discrimination with respect to gender, age, race, religion, social status, disease, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. We respect the right of our employees to freedom of association and collective bargaining. We will never engage in any form of forced labor, child labor, or human trafficking. We will provide our employees with a safe and comfortable working environment and fair compensation based on our Global HR Policy regardless of gender or other factors. We also expect our business partners in all processes, including production, sales, service and support, to respect human rights in the workplace.
- Human rights in research and development
We will protect the dignity and human rights of research subjects, and will conduct research and development in compliance with laws and regulations concerning the protection of personal information and relevant ethical guidelines such as the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. We will respect human rights of research subjects, including privacy and the protection of personal information.
- Human rights in the community
We will respect the human rights of local communities, especially those in which our offices and factories are located and will continuously work to minimize the environmental impact of our business activities on these communities.
- Improvement in accessibility to healthcare
We strive to resolve the various issues that society faces in our business areas of testing and diagnosis. We will contribute to achieving universal health coverage (UHC)* by making high quality testing widely available in emerging and developing countries so that as many people as possible can benefit from healthcare.
- *UHC means providing all people access to affordable, proper services for health improvement, prevention, treatment of diseases, and recovery of function.
Education and training
We will share the specific status of these initiatives with all officers and employees, including temporary workers, working for the Sysmex Group and provide on-going education about our human rights policy.
Information disclosure
We will disclose the progress of our efforts to respect human rights on our website and by other means.
Responsibility to respect human rights
We will fulfill our responsibility to respect human rights through continuous implementation of human rights initiatives.
This Human Rights Policy was approved at the Steering Committee of Sysmex Corporation attended by all executive officers in November 2023 and signed by the President.
Kaoru Asano
President
SYSMEX CORPORATION
Anshin is a word at the core of the Sysmex corporate philosophy that embodies the essence of what we have been pursuing since our foundation, and has the following meanings:
- A state in which customers have no concerns about the safety and quality of our products and services.
- A state in which stakeholders can trust, be confident and reassured in our relationship, transactions, interaction, and all other matters.
- A state in which individuals in society can be in a calm state of mind with little or no anxiety about their own health, lives, or other matters.
Sysmex Group in this Human Rights Policy means Sysmex Corporation and all the affiliates in which Sysmex Corporation directly or indirectly holds a majority of the voting rights.